Kate & Co.

It happens to every blogger and business owner -- you wake up one day and you just don’t love your brand anymore. When you’ve spent a lot of money and/or time working on it, the thought of rebranding can be a bit of a mental mountain to climb. Before you jump down the rabbit hole of rebranding, ask yourself is refreshing your brand instead is an option.

What is a brand refresh?

By my definition, refreshing your brand means updating a few key pieces instead of undertaking a major brand overhaul. Most of the time, a brand refresh means not altering your logo and instead focusing on the supporting elements of your brand. Supporting elements can include your color palette, primary and secondary fonts, submark, patterns, textures, and photo/art direction style.

In my mind, the biggest bang for your buck comes with focusing on the most visually impactful elements: colors, fonts and pattern. In the sections below I provide guidance for this, but remember: your entire brand package needs to work together, so it’s important to rework your brand board to make sure your new elements gel together.

Refreshing fonts and colors

When it comes to your online brand, making changes to fonts and colors is one of the fastest ways to refresh your brand. Why? It’s typically a matter of simply updating your CSS or SquareSpace styles to make it happen. The hard part of course is making the actual selections. Ask yourself if your fonts still speak to your brand. Perhaps your site feels too traditional -- you may want to change out those serif fonts for more modern sans serif look. In my experience, if you have a primary and secondary font, it’s best to change them both out for a totally fresh look.

It’s no surprise that color changes can make a big impact, too. Subtle color tweaks may go unnoticed, but a color overhaul can total revitalize a brand that was a feeling stale.

Refresh patterns

While most brand boards include patterns, not all do. So, you can think about adding pattern if you don’t already have them. A fantastic place to look for patterns is Creative Market. There is a seemingly endless selection of patterns available that will give your brand a custom and unique look without the price tag.

My before and after brand boards are a perfect example of how important pattern changes can be. My patterns before were subtle and refined. Now, they are bold and creative. It has completely changed the initial impact that my brand makes on a visitor.

Summary

Creatives and bloggers can often feel the need to go back to the drawing board and start fresh with a new brand, when in reality simply refreshing your brand can extend the life of a really strong and established brand. Explore your options and enjoy the process!